Storage battery electrode



March 11, l1941. c. F. HAUNZ 2,234,731

STORAGE BATTERY ELECTRODE Filed April 13, 1957 INVENTOR. CHA/nfs E' Haulvz BY qwle@ ATTORNEY.

Patented Mar. 11, 1941 UNITED STATES vPATENT. OFFICE Richardson Company, ration of Ohio Lockland, Ohio, a corpo- Application April 13, 1937, Serial No. 136,639 6 Claims. (Cl. 136-9) My present invention relates to the manufacture of storage batteries of the type employing grids, and in particular to lthe lead-acid types of electrical storage batteries. As is well known, it

5 is now the current practice in manufacturing storage batteries of this type, to form a grid of lead auty and then nu .the interstices of this grid with active materials, usually in the form of oxides of lead or mixtures of oxides of lead. The l grid. of course, has to be heavy enough to conduct the required electrical current; but since the active materials in the interstices of a grid are relatively very much less conductive than the grid itself, lt will be clear that the size of the l lmerspaces m .the grid has to be kept down to a point where the current can be fairly efficiently drawn from the quantity of active materials involved. Thus the grids have to be much heavier than would otherwise be possible, and the amount of active materials, and therefore the capacity of the battery, has .to be held down.

The principle of my presen-t invention ls the use in connection with active materials or materlals adapted to form active materials 'oi a substance which will act not only as a binder to prevent the Washing away of such materials, but also will act as a means for rendering such materials very much more electrically conductive. By the employment of my invention, therefore, the capacity of an electric storage battery can he increased for a given size.

Briefly, in the practice of my invention, I mix with .the active materials of a storage battery electrode, a quantity of metallic filaments. These metallic illaments are electrically conductive and are also made of material which is substantially unaffected by the electrolyte of the storage bat- V tory under electrolytic conditions. For use in a lead-acid type storage battery, antimonial lead, il@ that is to say, lead containing sucient antimony to render it substantially inert under electrolytc conditions. will be found a suitable material. Antimoniai lead may be formed into metallic fila ments which are exceedingly fine in a hair-like condition, by means/and a method set forth in my lcil-pending application Serial No. 136,638 filed April 13, 193'?, and entitled Storage batteries, and by mechanism essentially shown in the co-pend. ing application of Adolph F. Krauss, Serial No. 96,124, filed August 14, 1936. The filaments as made in the Krauss apparatus are not, however, caught in water but are caught in a dry hopper, so .that their surfaces remain chemically unaected.

lt is possible, for example, to produce lead or till antimonial lead filaments which have high matting or cohering qualities and a very fine dimension, such that they are excellently adaptable to my invention. Thus, I have employed lea-d niaments or hairs which are on the average of a di- 5 ameter of .003 to .007 inch, and of a length up to 3A inch.

In the practice of my invention, I take these filaments of metal, which are inert to the storage battery electrolyte, and mix them in varying proportions wi-th the active ingredients of the plates of an electric storage battery. These active ingredients are usually oxides of lead or mixtures of oxides of lead. or they may be' the brown reactive` powder of my application Serial No. 96,- 094, liled August 14, 1936. As a variant of this procedure, I may mix together a quantity of metal filaments which are inert to the storage battery electrolyte, together with a quantity of metallic filaments which are adapted to 'be converged into 20 active ingredients under the electrolytic conditions which obtain in Ithe useof an electric storage battery, and after the assembly of the balttery as such, form up the plates, thereby converting the non-inert filaments in whole or in part int-o the desired active ingredients. .As a still further varlant, I may mix together a quantity of inert metallic laments, a quantity of non-inert metallic laments and a quantity of active materials, giving initially a storage battery which does not require an. extended forming period,

if any, but in which during the continued operation of the battery, the quantity of active material will be renewed or replenished by active materials derived from the non-inert metallic filaments.

It will be clear that to gain the object of my invention, it is necessary to employ an inert metal in lamentary form.

The fundamental objects of my invention as well as more specific ones which will be 'apparent to one skilled in the art, I accomplish by that procedure and by that certain structure and arrangement of parts oi. which I shall now describe certain exemplary embodiments. Reference may be had to the drawing wherein Figures 1-4 show different forms of storage battery electrode construction.

In Figures 1, 2 and 3, I have indicated a grid I, which is the conventional type support used in storage batteries and may be a cast structure of antimonial lead. 2 indicates the active material of the grid which may be formed in any oi the ways set forth above. That is to say, I may take antimonial lead filaments, prepared as indicated,

and mix these with the oxides to be employed in the plate and paste the plate with this mixture. In following this procedure, I secure an activated plate in which the mass of active compounds is bound together, and held from being washed away, by` lamentary metal. Also the mass of active material is rendered conductive by the iilamentary metal so that any given grid portion is able to draw current from a larger mass of active ingredients. Finally the intermixing of the metallic filaments gives greater strength to the mass.

Again the mass may be a mass of inert metallic filaments mixed with metallic filaments which are non-inert to the electrolyte under electrolytic conditions. Such a mass of mixed iilaments may bel very easily compacted in the grid of a plate,

and also may be joined to the metal grid structure in any suitable way, Such a plate will be an unformed plate. It will be built into a storage battery and the storage battery will undergo forming operations whereby the non-inert metal will be converted into active chemical compounds.

Again I may make a mixture of non-inert metallic filaments and active materials, securing thereby a plate in which the active material will be replenished or increased by active materials formed when the non-inert filaments are attacked.

Yet again, I may make a mixture of inert metallic laments, non-inert metallic laments and active ingredients such as oxide, from which to Modications may be made in my inventionv without departing from the spirit of it.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: I

1. In a storage battery, an electrode comprising a conductive structure having interstices and' a iilling in said interstices comprising lamentary metal which is inert to storage battery electrolyte, lamentary metal which is not inert to storage battery electrolyte under electrolytic conditions, and active compounds for said electrode.

2. In an electric storage battery structure of the lead-acid type, an electrode comprising a conductive structure having interstices therein and' a iilling in said interstices comprising iliaments of antimonial lead, laments'oi' substantially pure lead, and oxides of lead.

3. As an electrode ingredient in a lead-acid type storage battery, a. mixture of filaments oi' antimonia] lead, laments of substantially pure lead, and oxides of lead.

4. A lling plate for the grids of lead-acid storage batteries, comprising oxides of lead and antimonia] lead in lamentary form.

5. A'filling paste for the grids of lead-acid storage batteries, comprising oxides of lead, antimonial lead in iilamentary form, and substantially pure lead in lamentary form.

6. A storage battery electrode comprising a metallic grid having interstices, said interstices being pasted with -a composition comprising oxides of lead and antimonia] lead in illamentary form.

CHARLES F. HAUNZ. 

